(From The Homoeopathic Bulletin).
MANY a time I have heard people say that so far as medicinal treatment is concerned Homoeopathy has very often proved to be superior to Allopathy but as regards Surgical treatment Homoeopathy is of no value. Most probably they always spell Surgery by K-N-I-F-E. This is certainly an erroneous idea. Surgery does not always mean applied Surgery which is really a special branch of the Healing Art and requires special aptitude and training for a physician either Allopath or Homoeopath to qualify himself for a Surgeon worth the name.
Time has come when not only the lay public but even the eminent surgeons should pause and think of “Homoeopathy” before rushing to the operation table and save much of their trouble and tribulations of the sufferers. Let them have courage to reconnoitre the field of Homoeopathy instead of gnashing their teeth against it and then publish the result of their researches to the world.
Instances are many, not only in India, but in the most advanced and progressive countries like Germany, England and America, where a simple reference to the Hospital Records of Homoeopathic Institutions will corroborate the fact that when even the eminent surgeons skilful knife was thought of no avail, or to be of gravest danger to the patients, interval administration of medicines selected on the “Law of Similars” has brought salvation to the sufferers, even to the utter astonishment of surgeons.
Cases are there where not only internal administration of medicine but mechanical manipulation of surgeons knife is absolutely necessary. Here we should not misconstrue the issue at point. Modern surgery with its up-to-date paraphernalia is doing wonders, where the idea of cure by medicine will be simply ludicrous.
Surgery and Homoeopathy each has got its own field of action and when rightly applied each has obtained admiration and laurels for them. But our point is that, if surgeons instead of relying wholly on their knife in all cases minor and major pay little attention to the “Law of Similars” and if Homoeopaths try to understand and assimilate Surgery with all its implications as our master Hahnemann understood it, then many a life can be saved from the untimely grave they are being sent to by the egoistic enthusiasm of self-deceiving practitioners.
This article is intended neither to over-rate Homoeopathy nor to under-rate Surgery– a great and progressing science — but is a caution to the public and specially to surgeons who either out of bias for or ignorance of the Law of “Similia Similibus Curentur” many a time unnecessarily augment the troubles and miseries of the suffering humanity, though in their heart of hearts they honestly intend to give relief to them.
And instances are not wanting when surgeons knife applied in hot haste or through error or judgment has met with drastic results.
Surgeons knife should always be kept ready when this is absolutely necessary and should be used by specialists and under special circumstances with greatest care.
But in maladies like Carbuncle, Gangrene, Pyaemia, Fistula, Abscesses (including deep pelvic and gluteal abscesses), Felons, Whitlows, Hernia (uncomplicated cases), Appendicitis, Erysipelas, Intussusception of Intestines, Placenta Praevia and the like in which cases, it is believed by the public and most surgeons that salvation lies through “knife” alone, let them try Homoeopathy in the first instance, which has very often proved its superiority, simplicity and efficacy to risky Knife.
As regards “Carbuncle” let us see what Dr. Constantine Hering, genius and courage has revolutionized the medical world and has set many scientists thinking, says about it: In his opinion “To call a carbuncle a surgical disease is the greatest absurdity. An incision is always injurious and often fatal. A case has never been lost under right kind of treatment and it should always be treated by internal medicine only.”.
As regards fistula we have seen how by suppression or operation of fistula the centre of mischief has very often been transferred to chest.
Multiplication of instances of such other diseases mentioned above, cured by internal administration of medicine will only lengthen the article. It will also be redundant as almost every Homoeopath worth the name and those lovers of Homoeopathy know very well from their personal experiences wonderful cures of such cases.
Still for the general interest I shall mention one or two cases of my recent experience where my conviction has been doubly confirmed about the success of Homoeopathy in some of the surgical cases. On August 3rd of this year I was called in to see a “very serious and hopeless case of Carbuncle” in a old lady in the residence of Mr. S. Roy, an Officer of the Calcutta Corporation. The patient, a lady, 53 years old, hailed from a Muffusil place in the District of Midnapore, seeking surgical aid in a Hospital of Calcutta, as the prognosis of the case by the local doctors was very bad.
Expert opinions of surgeons about the case were divided. But they all agreed that the case was bad enough to stand the operation as the patients urine contained 42 per cent. sugar with a sp. gr. of 1,040, which did not yield to numbers of “Insulin” injections and she was infirmed with old age. Moreover the Carbuncle was situated in a very bad place in the left half of the Spinal Column covering a diameter about 6 inches.
As the “knife” was looked with suspicion in this case, and as it was a “given-up case” and left to “luck and chance” the guardians of the patient were wise enough to try Homoeopathy first (and thanks to the genius of Drs. Hahnemann and Hering), Carbo veg., Lachesis and Calcarea sulph. proved their worth once again and the patient whose life was despaired of, recovered within three weeks of Homoeopathic treatment and is now enjoying better health than she possessed before.
Later on I was told by Mr. Roy that one of the doctors who thought the case would surely turn fatal could not believe that the patient got cured by simple administration of internal medicine, till he came himself to see the patient after recovery.
In another instance I was consulted about a case of “Gangrene”. This was a young man of 32, a friend of Mr. S. K. Paul of No. 1 Chaitan Sen Lane, who consulted surgeons of great repute in several hospitals of Calcutta, about a progressive ulcer in his right leg near tibia, whose unanimous verdict was, as I was told, to amputate the leg from the knee without delay, to save the life of the patient.
But the most unfortunate thing in this case was that the patient had his left leg amputated three years back on account of “Dry Gangrene” and as he was married and had a large family to maintain he and his relatives shuddered at the idea of a second amputation, because with one leg he was moving on crutches with difficulty but to have both removed means to make the poor fellow incapable for all practical purposes. So they had to give up the idea of “Surgery” and to have recourse to Homoeopathy.
Cinnabaris (prescribed because the whole leg was looking very red as if burnt by fire) and Secale cornutum 1m served the purpose of surgeons but without affecting the leg in the least. The man was quite well within five weeks. Now think, what would have happened to this poor fellow but for internal administration of medicine.
I am afraid I am wearing out the patience of my gentle readers and I shall conclude now by another instance.
On this occasion great credit was given to Homoeopathy for stopping haemorrhage in a Placenta Praevia case in a lady of 28 and helping safe and normal delivery with the help of my tried and valuable friend Arnica alone, but for whose services the patient was about to be operated by a reputed obstetrician of Calcutta in whose opinion there was no other alternative.
The human body contains about 7 lbs. of mineral matter, of which about five-sixths is in the bones. An analysis of the whole body would yield about 5 per cent. of ash. It is obvious from this that the mineral ingredients of the diet are important building material for the body, and are therefore to be regarded as foods in the strictly scientific sense of the term.
The chief mineral substances required in the food are sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron, along with phosphorus, chlorine, sulphur, and traces of silica, fluorine, and iodine.
So necessary are these for maintaining intact the fabric of the body that death ensues within about a month if the supply of them is entirely cut off, even although all the other constituents of a normal diet are supplied as before.
–DR. ROBERT HUTCHINSON, Principles of Dietetics.
